Get a Whole New Wardrobe Without Spending a Penny

No matter how much time and thought you put into your clothes, there comes a time what you just hate it all. For me, that’s about every six months. I look in my closet and there’s not a single thing I want to wear. I stand there going through hanger after hanger and every piece of clothing looks like garbage. That really cute striped shirt I wear all the time? Stupid. That black corduroy mini-skirt I ogled in the store for 3 weeks before buying? The worst.

I look over at my cat in despair “UGGGGGHHHHHHH I don’t have anything”. He, of course, is just there hoping for treats.

Seven years ago, when I felt this despair rise up I would’ve run out to the mall and blown a couple hundred bucks on some fast fashion and called it a day. I’d have a whole new closet! Hurray! Every piece I’d hated would be donated to Goodwill. It was a win-win. Or so I thought.

Fashion is what you buy, style is what you do with it.

Two years ago, I really got serious about sustainable fashion. Instead of spending a couple hundred bucks on a bunch of fast fashion junk, I’d spend a couple hundred bucks on a few good ethical pieces. I’d get a new closet, and no one was exploited. Hurray! I’d pack up the items I was sick of and donate them to a women’s shelter.

Then about three months ago everything shifted again. I was going through my bi-yearly freakout, when I stumbled across a dress I hadn’t worn in almost a year. It’s a vintage yellow sundress from the 90’s with bright tropical flowers on it. When I first got it I was obsessed and wore it all the time. As is my habit though, within six months I was sick of the sight of it, but instead of donating it, the dress somehow got pushed to the back of my closet.

Pulling it out almost a year later, I was flooded with the wonder I’d felt when I first bought it. I remembered how wearing it I’d felt happy and free. How could I have ever hated this dress?

Then it hit me like a flash.

The problem wasn’t my wardrobe, the problem was that I’d lost the ability to see the beauty in my wardrobe.

As with any relationship, if you don’t spice things up you get bored. How do you do that with clothes though? It’s not like I can take my dress out for long romantic walks on the beach. In my mind, my wardrobe was a fixed commodity. I know my clothes, I know what they go with and what they don’t go with. There was nothing new to discover about them. End of story.

I sat and considered my dilemma. What’s a Compassionate Fashionista to do? I don’t want to consume more than I need. I don’t want to perpetuate the cycle of buying and dumping clothes. On average Americans dump 75 pounds of clothes per year per person. No way do I want to be part of that statistic. But I hate hate hate everything in my closet. With no solution in sight, I hopped on the internet, hoping some cute cat videos would distract me.

And lo and behold right alongside my videos was an ad for Cladwell. Thank the google advertising gods because it was the exact solution I’d been looking for. Cladwell is an app that helps you create more outfits with the items already in your closet!

I was a little skeptical at first, but honestly, I was willing to give anything a try. After downloading the app and adding in my clothes (don’t worry it only took about ten minutes), I checked my virtual closet and found Cladwell had curated…..5,940 possible outfits.

What the what?! I scrolled through the possibilities and found combinations I would never have thought of. I kid you not, one outfit paired three items all of which I’d had over two years but had never paired together. My mind was blown. It was like getting a brand new closet without spending a dime or any of our natural resources.

My favorite feature though, is it narrows the 5,940 outfits to three per day based on the weather. Scrolling through it every morning I feel like I have a personal shopper without having to actually talk to anyone. It’s perfect!

For those of you brave souls out there trying a capsule wardrobe, Cladwell is a great way to really maximize those few pieces you have.

I love that one little app can make such a huge difference in how I look at my closet. It’s transformed from a stale boring old mess to a whole new world of possibilities. Download Cladwell and fall in love with your closet every morning. Mother Earth and your wallet will thank you.